Opposing views on A-Level choices

My yr 13 daughter is doing two of those subjects (geography and Psychology) and enjoys both. She is planning on doing Psychology at hopefully a Russell group uni. Most Psych degrees require one science which includes Psychology (some unis include Geography in their list of sciences too). She hasn't found the Maths/stats side of Psychology too difficult (she got a 7 in GCSE Maths but worked hard for it). There has been some overlap between the A levels in terms of research methods which helped her when she was doing her Geography fieldwork). I work in Assessment and both are good, solid A levels - very relevant in life today

There isn’t any bad decisions really. It’s easily rectified later via an Access course or foundation year if necessary. Grades are important though. I tell my students to
oicj subjects they’re likely to get high grades in. Plus research what those options can lead to. Prospects.ac.uk is a good resource.

I agree with those saying no use doing history if you hate it. As I said, my main concern would be two totally new subjects. If he did business GCSE and enjoyed it, different story.

Yes get him to look at some A level papers and mark schemes and see if he can see himself answering those questions and being engaged.

As long as he's happy, healthy, getting an education, and staying out of trouble, you are winning.

DS1 did Business, Geography and Maths. He too was a good all rounder who didn’t early know what he wanted to do. Maths took up lot of his time and nearly killed him (although he did come out with a B), and got A’s in the other two subjects - so was glad he hadn’t picked other sciences or maybe more ‘testing’ subjects. He went on to study Geography at a RG uni (still not wanting to know what he wanted to do, just chose a good solid subject) and is now in the second year of a grad scheme.
Its a combination of choosing what you are good at, what you enjoy and what you will get the best results in because to some extent (exceptions of course) it’s often the grade rather than the subject that matters. All part of playing the game.

A traditionally respected academic subject won't be respected if you son gets a crap grade. He needs to do something he wants to do snd is interested in. The higher his interest the more engaged he will be. Alevels are hard. Don't make them harder by pushing him into subjects that will bore him senseless.

I don't think history is going to be any more useful unless he wants to do a history degree.
Most bases are covered by psychology, geography and business - essays, stats, data analysis etc

Does he not do chem or physics? Tho if not keen on science they are not going to appeal.

Yes history might be more useful than business. If he is not keen on maths it’s best to avoid the A level.

Geog btw science or not will keep open geography at uni and also subjects such as surveying or maybe env science or IR.

History is awful at A level if it’s a topic you don’t enjoy.

I only managed to get through mine because I was extremely lucky with the questions - related to my other A levels.

Does it really matter if business becomes outdated? I don’t think I’ve used any knowledge from my A levels in the last 25 years of work.

How about History, Geography and Psychology?

Honestly, very soon Business is going to be a complete waste of time.

Maths in the form of Statistics will be needed for Business and Psychology and other subjects.

I think a degree apprenticeship is a great idea but I’ve heard it’s getting more and more competitive as graduates are discovering it’s hard to get a job and many of them stuck in non-graduate jobs regretting their degree.

So - best to form a plan; take a look at the kind of degree apprenticeships out there in the real world and see what appeals; then work backwards.

Studying what sounds interesting and easy has to be balanced with real world - I actually think business, psychology and geography sounds pretty good

What does your DH actually want him to study?

I mean, business is going to be decimated by AI, but I don't think psychology and geography will be going away.

I should say @lyraa that the ”most frequently dropped” anecdote re psych is just that – anecdata from my DCs’ school. I think as a pp says tho, YP think it sounds interesting and they have not done it before so they take it – but it can be quite dry with a good deal of maths and a lot of case studies.

I would be wary about taking two unknown subjects for A level. Is there nothing else in his GCSE choices that he wants to keep doing? Someone shifting to 2 out of 3 totally new subjects feels a bit like “I don’t like the ones I’ve done so let’s pick something new”.

You say he doesn’t want to do STEM but then you are glad that psych and geog are both sciences? If he is not interested in STEM, does that matter? And tbh the science factor for those two is more that if you want to do (say) bio or chem at uni, you are often asked for a second science – and for some unis geog or psych are acceptable. But your DS is not going in that direction so tbh the “considered a science” aspect is a bit of a red herring. Not that there is anything wrong with either subject as such.

What else does he do for GSCE? Any of these a possibility instead of psych or business – maths, history, DT, an MFL? Worth consideration at least I would say (not bc current choices are in any way dubious, more from the PoV of what he knows and likes).

Psychology is popular with teens because they are in the middle of puberty so a subject that sounds like it will tell them how the human mind works is appealing.

Plus it's new so they don't already hate it. And they think it will be a doss.

When they start and discover just how much maths content there is, alot of them get a nasty shock.

Yeh psych is the most commonly dropped A level at my dcs’ school. It’s less exciting than it sounds!

I completely agree that he should be doing subjects he wants to do and is interested in, rather than thinking about what will look “good” to future employers. However - what does he like the look of or what interests him about psychology? My son found that quite a few of his friends who chose that ended up moving to another subject quite quickly once they realised it was actually going to be hard work.

Those A levels are fine in themselves but I agree with @lizs – does he realise that neither business nor psych is needed for a degree in either of those? And has he done either at GCSE? Business is quite commonly offered.

The key things with A level choices IMHO are:

• Will the student enjoy studying them?
• Will their choices close any doors they want to keep open?

The first is more important really. If you won’t enjoy bio or chem then it feels all kinds of wrong to go on to say “but I want to be a doctor”. You really don’t. Similarly for French/French teacher. Or whatever. All A levels close doors but the question is, are they doors you might want to go through?

If unsure of a uni direction, then it makes sense IMHO (other things, by which I mean which subjects you enjoy, which are offered at your school, being equal) to take subjects that will keep the most doors open – in other words subjects needed for certain degrees. So in your DS’s case, he might (might) be better off subbing business and psych for (say) maths and biology, or history and English lit. But not if those are subjects he hates, and he loves business from GCSE and is sure he will love psych.

Psychology is a science btw as a PP points out, but it is not needed as such for a psych degree; and if he wants to later study biology or chem or physics or maths he will need to have done that A level – whereas for psych at uni most sciences are acceptable. Geog is also often counted as a second science – and geog has the advantage that it is also needed for a geography degree and associated subjects. No A level subject today is a doss btw. Especially not art mentioned by a PP!

No employer will mind what subjects he took at A level.

Does it still exist? I was just kidding...when I did mine in the early 00s it was seen as a 'doss' subject like art, food tech or similar that you picked as your 4th A Level.

My old man told me there was no way he was paying for me to sit around watching movies for two years...I talked him around but my school dropped it before we got to pick. Ended up doing Food Tech as my 'doss' which involved a lot less dossing in the kitchen and a lot more science than I'd expected 😭